KIEV, Ukraine
Ukraine has banned all symbols and propaganda related to totalitarian ideologies, including the Soviet tradition, communism and Nazism.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed into law Saturday a parliament-approved bill that made it a crime to produce and distribute communist or Nazi symbols, and to play national anthems of former Soviet Socialist republics at public places.
The law was passed in the Ukrainian parliament last month.
The move comes as the Kiev administration seeks to establish stronger ties with Europe and achieve a complete break from Russia, which annexed the Crimean peninsula in March last year. Pro-Russian separatists continue to fight against Ukrainian forces in the restive east, striving to secede from Ukraine.
Poroshenko also enacted laws on declassifying Soviet intelligence documents from the years 1917-1991, to celebrate a "Victory Day" against Nazism during the Second World War, and to restore the honor of Ukrainian Insurgent Army and other groups fighting against the Soviets during the war.
